This is Log #2. If you don’t know what Logs are, they’re videos where I share what I’m learning or experimenting with, no script and no promises that it will change your life.
The video is in Spanish. This post covers the same content in English.
Online or in person: choose with the full picture #
You have two options for taking the exam: online from wherever you want, or in person at an authorized test center.
I chose online. Looking back, I’m not sure it’s the best option for everyone.
Preparing your space is more stressful than it sounds: you have to clear your desk, remove books, papers and extra monitors. The only thing allowed on the desk is the computer you’re taking the exam on. If there’s background noise or suspicious behavior, they can invalidate it. You can’t read the questions out loud.
In my case, right in the middle of the exam, the scrap-metal truck drove by blasting its loudspeaker. That pretty much sums up the extra stress the online format adds.
If you live somewhere with frequent noise or your internet connection isn’t stable, seriously consider taking it at a test center. You can switch formats up to 72 hours before the exam at no extra cost.
The check-in process #
The day before the exam you do a test check-in to get familiar with it. On exam day you repeat it: you test your camera, microphone and video. Then a QR code appears that you have to scan with your phone to continue.
With your phone you take a photo of your official ID and then start taking photos of your surroundings: front, back, right, left, upper-right corner, upper-left corner.
It’s quite invasive. I understand they need to verify you’re not cheating, but knowing it in advance removes unnecessary stress on exam day.
The software you download to take the exam locks your computer. Only the exam window can be open. Suspicious keys (print screen, etc.) can also cancel it. You only need the mouse to answer the exam, except for the open feedback field at the end.
My background going into the exam #
A little over 2 years using BigQuery intensively. Another 8 months or so with services like Cloud Functions, Compute Engine (virtual machines), Terraform, IAM and Cloud Storage.
What I was missing: Kubernetes, GCP networking, App Engine, Managed Instance Groups. Spoiler: those are exactly the topics that carry the most weight on the exam.
The topics that really matter #
This isn’t an exhaustive list of the official syllabus. It’s what I felt carried the most weight based on what I found on the exam:
Kubernetes — The topic I struggled with the most. If you don’t use it day to day, you’ll have to study it. The differences between Autopilot and Standard, what pods are, how they communicate with each other, service types. Network load balancers also come in here: L7 (HTTPS) and L4 (SSL/TCP), and when to use each depending on whether traffic is inbound, internal or outbound.
Networking and VPCs — Subnets, cases where you run out of internal IPs, migrations from on-premise.
Permissions and IAM — Lots of least privilege. Basic roles are very broad, predefined roles are safer, custom roles are the most specific. User groups, service accounts, key files for authenticating from local environments.
Storage — Knowing when to use BigQuery vs Cloud SQL vs Spanner vs Bigtable vs Cloud Storage vs Firestore. You don’t need to know each service in depth, but you do need to know which one fits which scenario.
Cloud Storage — Lifecycle Management (moving files to cheaper storage after X days), versioning, the container registry.
App Engine — The difference between the flexible and standard environments.
Pub/Sub — A couple of questions.
Commands — You don’t need to memorize them all. Review the common Pub/Sub, Compute Engine and Kubernetes commands. You don’t have to know them by heart, but having seen them helps you rule out options.
BigQuery — Mainly through Cloud Billing: exporting billing data to BQ and analyzing it there.
Strategy for the exam #
Read the questions all the way through before answering. Some questions are long and the important part is in the last line. Sometimes they describe a complex architecture and at the end only ask about permissions or the right load balancer.
Start by ruling out options that clearly don’t apply. You can usually narrow it down to two possible options, and from there it’s more manageable.
Answer everything in one pass and mark the ones you’re unsure about with “review”. At the end they show up in the list with an asterisk and you can revisit them.
The resources I used #
Official Google course: In October they gave free access to a course where Google staff explain each service with slides and sample questions. I don’t know if they repeat it every year, but if you see the announcement, take it.
Cloud Skills Boost: Google’s platform with labs where you can spin up real services in sandbox environments. When I recorded the video they gave 30 free credits per month. Labs cost between 2 and 5 credits. I did them paying close attention to what was being done and why, not just to complete them.
Official Google Sample Questions: I’ll leave them on the channel (video description). On my first attempt I got almost all of them wrong. That’s normal. Use them as a study tool: when you get something wrong, paste it into Gemini and ask it to explain why the answer is that one and not yours.
Gemini in study mode: I turned on study mode and asked it to explain topics (Kubernetes, pods, service types) and then give me sample questions. It worked well for the topics where I had less hands-on experience.
Udemy question bank: There’s a practice resource focused on real cloud migration cases. It’s not a course, it’s questions.
Practice with exam-style questions
The question bank I used to prepare: real cloud migration scenarios, very similar to what you'll find on the exam.
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See the question bank on Udemy →If you’re about to take the exam, let me know in the comments. And if you already took it after watching this, come back and tell me whether the resources worked or not. It’s the only way to know if this is useful at all.
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